Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-30

years. have always thought that made
GOOD Justice too" he added.
iaa,Io, nave e,, no doubt OF it,, remarked Mr.. An
aefspp. When were you elected Governor
was elected Governor in 1861" answered
oHe senator n. and served two years The term
| VI we governor was then two years
held 81 punt O'''e'' 9'' e'e'
Yes. sir
believe you were elected recently Sena-
Tor OF the United Statss?
broad smile oyerspread the Senator's face
as ne said, :. Oh. yes, | forgo, that am now 8
senator OF the United States"
| 1here was visible merrirnent at the forpefful-
! ness OF the witness. From this he went on to
relate how the first contracts Of the Central Pa
cIhc were let and the formation of the Contract
ana Finance Company.
| FORMATION OF THE CONTRACT aSp FINANCE cos-
PANY.
He said the difficulties experienced in the
construction of The first few miles of road were
! due to the company having no power to control
lhe work. The failures of some of the contract
| ors TO complete their work in the time pre-
! seribed, resulted IN the formation of the Con-
tract and Finance Company, through which
the directors of the Central Pacific were en-
apled TO manage the work and push it rapidly
10 completion Although Charles Croker re-
signed from the Central Pacific directory and
became the head of the Contract and Finance
tSi4nipddtRy. ne was substantially controlled by
himself and colleagues. The same expenditures
and labor on the first $50 miles of road from
sacramento would have built a road OF the
same gauge from Ogden TO Chicago. The diff
cultleS 10 DC surmounted were simply stipend
Gus. HOW they were ever overcome he could
not now, tell. He knew that himself and col
leagues hardly slept during the progress of the
WORK Ihey were constantly on the verge of
financial and Typographical difficulties it now
seems marvellous that they got over.
SOME OF THE EARLY CONTRACTS.
Mt Anderson cross-examined the witness at
! length concerning the contracts taken by the
Finance and Contract Company. He promised
that he and the other Commissioners Thought
the present weak condition of the Central Pacific
was due to the Croker contracts, the contracts
letto the Contract and Finance COMPANY and
work done by the Pacific Improvement Com
pany, the Western Development COMPANY nv
which individuals connected with them had
absorbed the stock and bonds of the Central
Pacific Company
Senator Stanford replied that he was willing
the commission should go as deeply into thai
Company. having served its purpose to push the
work ON the road, it was dissolved and its debIs
assumed by other corporations He might have
seen It's books but did not know what they CON
tanned nor where they were. They had ciisap
peared. The only persons who could tell any
thing about them were Charles Crocker and "
Z, Brown, the bookkeeper who kept them The
witness said the first contract let to Charles
Croker, known as the "Crocker CONTRACT :"
which covered the road TO Dutch Flat, was
practically assumed by the COMPANY ms the
work was afterward pushed without regard To
the terms OF the contract. He had never been
over the contract with Croker nor had any ac-
counting ever been MAD between him and the
Central Pacific Company. In the best of his
knowledge Crocker made no large profits out of
1t, AT that time money was very short and hard
to get, and had Croker been making larpe
profits ne had no doubt they would have been
shut OIL He and his colleagues had no money
to waste. The witness was not Il partner with
Croker in the first contract let TO c. Crocker &
Co., and never shared in the results of that con-
tract. This was true of his associates. The
Directors of the Central Pacific which CON
sisted of himself G. P, Huntington, E. B.
Mar nd
were then so intimately associated in desire
to build the road that ne could hardly separate
them.
TIE orIii' AToRs Of The CONTRACT AND Fl
NANCE COMPANY.
Mr.. Anderson asked who originated the Con
tract and Finance Company
ness
Mr.. Huntington claims to have originated
it, said Mr.. Anderson.
That could Tot have been. said the witness
" for he was not here at the time. know we
talked the thing over for sometime before its
formation and he may nave been consulted
The idea of the company was to get capitalists
in to help us build the read. We opened the
books with s. 100000 capital but there were no
subscriptions offered. We finally took ii up
ourselves l subscribed for about one-fifth nv
self. The balance was taken by the Croekers,
Huntington and Hopkins There were other
stockholders D. 4. Croker who il not related
to the other Crockers. was one. Mr. Milliken,
then Sacramento capitalist, was another and
ptlleNt W. e DfOWH udu some OF the stock.
In fact, Mr.. Brown was one of the originators"
The witness said the oks of the Central Pa
cific Company we opened week in advance
at Sacramento, and alterward at San Francisco
For two days he sat in his Office here awaiting
subscriptions, but nobody came. Finally a
FIenehman he did not know came in and took
ten shares
In regard to the Contract and Finance Com
pany his experience was much the same. He
He said he had personally solicited such men as
D. 0. Mills, N. ; Latham and others to take up
"a "a N Darf Al IL
time would not touch the enterprise The bur
den fell on the directors.
THE MISSING BOOKS
Mr.. Anderson asked for an explanation of the
disappearance of the books of the Contract and
Finance Company
The witness laid about the time the comnanv
cleaned up Its affairs several blscbmsiling suits
were commenced, the object of which was to
dlscredlt HIM ard his associates. One of the
complaints, he remembered, charged himself
and associates with ali sorts of offenses, and
with making vast amounts out of the building
OF the road One of them charged that the
Central Pacific Directors had made 500 600 600
just as though that was possible out of the ST.
100000 granted by the Government. He did not
think the Government had any interest in the
operations of the Contract and Finance Com
pany. ls had taken the contracts and per-
formed its work.
Mr.. Stanford said it was now twenty-six years
since he had gwen any attention to the affairs
of the Contract and Finance Committee and he
could not remember all it had done. He re-
membered that when the company dissolved
there was division of stock, but no division of
money. He was positive of this. The original
contract with the Central Pacific was s'gnsd by
him. OF course he had read it and knew of its
provisions. He did not know that this contract
had ever disappeared, for there could be no OBJ
iect in anybody taking it away. as its terms
could be ascertained from the Central Pacifc's
books.
The witness stated that when the road was
completed to Ogden he and his associates would
have gladly sold out their holdings in the Cen
trail Pacific at 10 cents the dollar. For one
up the enterprise. Circumstances. however,
compelled him to stay in, and, he added, he was
not now sorry.
AID FROM OUTSIDE SOURCES.
The senator then gayen in round figures the
aid received from other sources than the Gov
eminent. Placer county gave bonds for the
sale of which the company realized $780,
000 The sacramento county bonds were sold
at sixty-fiYe cents, netting about $780,
sold at % cents, realizing about al equal sum.
The State guaranteed the interest on 81 100000
of the company's bonds for which amount
81 900 600 was realized. The State paid this in
terest, which was in the nature of a donation.
This was about all the aid the company received
from the counties through which it runs.
IN answer to questions by Mr. Anderson, the
witness gave detailed statement of the in-
crease of the stock Of the Central Pacific, the
issuance OF the second mortgage bonds, and
the transfer in ISL of the Croker interest in
some of the tributary lines to himself and Hunt
ington at Is cents on the dollar. Shortly after
this the main line and its feeders began to de-
velop business, and the whole has since proved
a success.
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